Why Aren't We Allowed Cloud Saves for New Horizons?

[Sweetley]

Honestly, I already accepted it that the game will probably not get supported with Cloud Save, although it would have been nice to have it, especially if you already pay for this service via the Switch Online Membership. The argument with "it's because of cheaters" is silly, as if everyone would cheat right away or try to manipulating the game in any way. It sucks, but whatever, I at least will not boycott it or so because of this, as I waited way too long for a new Animal Crossing main game.

 

[aburayacrossing]

There should be a third option, something like “export/back up town.” It can only be done once a month or so (like someone else mentioned in this thread). Then there is little potential for cheating and you can back up your game once in a while in case your switch is damaged.

The thought of losing my game if I drop my console makes me so sad! But don’t many people cope with this already when they get the download version of ACNL?

 

[John Wick]

There should be a third option, something like “export/back up town.” It can only be done once a month or so (like someone else mentioned in this thread). Then there is little potential for cheating and you can back up your game once in a while in case your switch is damaged.

The thought of losing my game if I drop my console makes me so sad! But don’t many people cope with this already when they get the download version of ACNL?

I don't understand why switch games can't be made to save on the game on the actual cartridge.

I haven't bought a switch yet and almost everything I read about it is negative. (Lack of saving options, drifting joy cons)

 

[Boccages]

OH sweet lord. Can we get over this save-anxiety please? I've had my Switch since launch. No game has ever had any corrupted save problem. Zelda, Skyrim, Witcher 3, Stardew Valley, Civilization VI, etc. This issue is a tempest in a teacup.

 

[John Wick]

OH sweet lord. Can we get over this save-anxiety please? I've had my Switch since launch. No game has ever had any corrupted save problem. Zelda, Skyrim, Witcher 3, Stardew Valley, Civilization VI, etc. This issue is a tempest in a teacup.

I can't just stop feeling a certain way, especially when it's this important. And it is!

People put literally years in to their New Leaf towns, myself included when I still had my game. To have it possibly wiped out because the dog knocked the switch onto the floor, or whatever, is a very valid concern.

You can't just dismiss people's anxieties like that.

 

[Sweetley]

Technically, we already played every other AC game in the past with the risk of losing it. You could have lost your town at any point if the save file itself gets corrupted, when the cartridge or console stopped working for whatever reasons etc. There was also no Cloud Save or any other way to save it (except hacking, but that's another story) and people couldn't do anything about it. It's like as if it's the same case now as back then.

People put literally years in to their New Leaf towns, myself included when I still had my game. To have it possibly wiped out because the dog knocked the switch onto the floor, or whatever, is a very valid concern.

Ok, but you can't blame the poor dog (or any other pet) for knocking your Switch onto the floor if you don't put it at a save spot to prevent something like this. It's like if I would put my Switch on the edge of a table and give Nintendo the blame when it felt down afterwards because I'm the dummy and put it there. Besides, the Switch is not made out of porcelain, it survives falling onto the floor if it's not that high and also not crashing on a hard, pointy ground without wiping out your whole save files, I speak from experience. Just take care of your console and everything will be fine.

 

[John Wick]

It was an example. I don't even have a dog.

My physical copy of New Leaf was in my 3DS at all times. The cartridge was pretty much protected.

The switch breaks, you lose everything.

Even if you take the utmost care of something, accidents happen. It's a fact of life.

When all is said and done, we really do need other means of saving.

 

[Ossiran]

I don't understand why switch games can't be made to save on the game on the actual cartridge.

I haven't bought a switch yet and almost everything I read about it is negative. (Lack of saving options, drifting joy cons)

Switch is an awesome console, IMO. I've personally never had a problem with my Joy-Cons.

Also, if you saved to the cartridge, if you lose the cartridge you lose all your data. It's the same problem. By having save directly on the console, it's harder to alter save data.

The Switch is a home console/handheld hybrid (or was before the Lite). It just uses cartridges instead of discs. You couldn't save on the disc for any system, so it's not much different here.

They went with a cartridge because it's easier to carry them around and is (usually) faster in terms of load times than a disc.

 

[John Wick]

Well many people have joy con issues. There was/is even a class action lawsuit filed.

That means it's more than just a couple of people with that issue.

Google it.

A game cartridge is easier to replace (less expensive) than a console, and the cartridge is basically protected by said console.

I feel the topic has run it's course (for me), so I'll just say each to their own.

 

[Ossiran]

Well many people have joy con issues. There was/is even a class action lawsuit filed.

That means it's more than just a couple of people with that issue.

Google it.

I'm aware of it. I'm just saying mine have been fine. The console is great, in my opinion. If you want to play NH, you'll have to get one eventually. That's just how it is. You'll just have to decide how much you want to play the game.

And I know it's easier to replace, but I was merely pointing out that if you lost the cartridge, your save data would be just as inaccessible.

 

[pawpatrolbab]

They're scared of cheating, that's why they have it disabled for other games (Pokemon has it too- I think)

 

[Lavamaize]

It is mostly to prvent time travle and cheating, to make the game more realstic.

- - - Post Merge - - -

They probly also might do it to prvent some sort of hacking.

 

[QueenOpossum]

I don't understand why switch games can't be made to save on the game on the actual cartridge.

I haven't bought a switch yet and almost everything I read about it is negative. (Lack of saving options, drifting joy cons)

Switch Carts are read only to prevent altering of game data to hack games. Other consoles for years have saves to the device or to memory cards, including the gamecube and wii.

 

[John Wick]

I know they are.

 

[Dacroze]

The cheating and mainly item duplication concerns are valid but at the same time also not really considering the following. There are around 20 million easily moddable/hackable switches out there. Homebrew offers save backups, which means there are 20million Switches out there that can easily duplicate items in AC and pretty much any other game, except fully online games (unless I got something wrong). This means prohibiting cloud saves will essentially only punish the normal players because everyone with a hacked switch can backup their saves anyway and duplicate stuff.
Animal Crossing isn't a competitive game, so when someone wants to time travel? Fine. Someone wants to duplicate items? Fine. It's not like it will affect anyone else in the end, so I don't get why they want to prevent it.

It is mostly to prvent time travle and cheating, to make the game more realstic.

- - - Post Merge - - -

They probly also might do it to prvent some sort of hacking.

Time travel can't be prevented anyway and cloud saves won't change that for technical reasons

 

[Boccages]

Nintendo is not worried about time travel. Nintendo is worried about game-breaking item duplicating.

 

[Ossiran]

The cheating and mainly item duplication concerns are valid but at the same time also not really considering the following. There are around 20 million easily moddable/hackable switches out there. Homebrew offers save backups, which means there are 20million Switches out there that can easily duplicate items in AC and pretty much any other game, except fully online games (unless I got something wrong). This means prohibiting cloud saves will essentially only punish the normal players because everyone with a hacked switch can backup their saves anyway and duplicate stuff.
Animal Crossing isn't a competitive game, so when someone wants to time travel? Fine. Someone wants to duplicate items? Fine. It's not like it will affect anyone else in the end, so I don't get why they want to prevent it.

True, but how many of those are actually hacked/modded? And to use it, you have to use an older firmware. For some games, Nintendo doesn't let you go online if you aren't on the current firmware. Can hackers get around this? Yes. But many of them won't. It's not a 100% solution. Nothing is! Hackers will ALWAYS find a way.

The point is that no cloud saves will stop a method that can be EASILY done by anyone from being abused.

You're right that it's not a competitive game, but City Folk was plagued by people dropping Royal Crowns at every open gate town they could find on week 1 (I don't know about here, but a chatroom I was in at the time had people doing it nonstop). Suddenly everyone had the bells they needed, and the people who wanted to play legitimately couldn't afford items from other people due to the absurd inflation. It's not very relaxing when you see people asking for 1M+ bells for an item not worth 10,000 in the catalog.

 

[jefflomacy]

My favorite thing about online play costing money and Nintendo being able to ban entire devices by their GUID is that hacking is now cost-prohibitive for many people. A banned device is quite an expensive loss. I look forward to the majority of people playing New Horizons legitimately and not ruining the online market with the inflation mentioned above. In my opinion, online play costing money is the harshest response Nintendo could have delivered to curb hacking and piracy. The readily accessible nature of hacking for the DS family was quite a serious issue for them. This is why online play costs money but is not the superior experience many people assumed it would be. It's an anti-piracy, anti-hacking mechanism.

 

[Dacroze]

True, but how many of those are actually hacked/modded? And to use it, you have to use an older firmware. For some games, Nintendo doesn't let you go online if you aren't on the current firmware. Can hackers get around this? Yes. But many of them won't. It's not a 100% solution. Nothing is! Hackers will ALWAYS find a way.

The point is that no cloud saves will stop a method that can be EASILY done by anyone from being abused.

You're right that it's not a competitive game, but City Folk was plagued by people dropping Royal Crowns at every open gate town they could find on week 1 (I don't know about here, but a chatroom I was in at the time had people doing it nonstop). Suddenly everyone had the bells they needed, and the people who wanted to play legitimately couldn't afford items from other people due to the absurd inflation. It's not very relaxing when you see people asking for 1M+ bells for an item not worth 10,000 in the catalog.

Of course I don't have numbers, but I thought to myself: how many hackers does it take to seriously hurt the economy? (To clarify I do not hope this happens, I hope to trade myself and my Switch isn't hacked). IIRC the first 20 million with the hardware flaw are pretty much unpatchable from Nintendos side and you get the most recent firmware really fast, but the newer ones are tied to a lower firmware version I think.

I think it will be a lot better on here, even if for some reason something similar happens to City Folk. I didn't play online back then, so I can't really tell how bad it was. I'd say if something like in CF happens again, people here will catch on to it pretty fast and there are also wifi/trade ratings. I also think most people on here don't have hacked Switches and if they do, they won't dupe items, etc. (I know I could be wrong about that, but that's the feeling I got from reading on this board over the last year.)

I just hope there will be some kind of way to backup your save without hacking your switch, even if it is limited to once a week/month. Losing a week/month's worth of progress is a lot better than 3 years. Stupid things can always happen and technology can just give up on you. This would give me and other people at least a bit peace of mind.

 

[Jessy_Azran]

I'm over the cloud saves, actually it is alright. I survived (only just) when I had New Leaf for seven years without deleting my data ever.


I never did anything wrong with my console or game card, but all of a sudden it erased all of the data. I didn't drop it because I'm not an idiot, I have a special case for it and it was on the bottom shelf in my bookcase.


And then my 2DS stopped working, and when I checked it back on my brother's 2DS, all the save data was gone. My brother was devastated too because he helped me within those seven years by having a save data on there.


So if my Switch loses data from cloud data not enabled, then that is totally fine. If I survived the first time, I don't care about anything else. Maybe redoing my New Leaf town was better. So might be the same thing with New Horizons.


It's just not fair for primary, secondary and university students compared to people who have the privileges to play every day and never miss out on a special occasion. Like my birthday, or my brother's birthday.